If you’re blissfully ignorant of the existence of Celebrity Apprentice, its premise is as follows: famous people of various repute — reality stars, ’90s heartthrobs, Gilbert Gottfried — are called together by Donald Trump to compete in slightly dehumanizing business competitions in order to raise money for charity. But because this is reality TV and the creation of Donald Trump, no good deed can be done without the opportunity for Trump, his daughter Ivanka, and, for some reason, British blow-hard Piers Morgan to offer up performance reviews and ultimately fire one unlucky celebrity for doing a bad job at whatever silly game they’ve concocted. (Last night it had something to do with a pie shop?) That’s what happened to poor Keshia Knight Pulliam, known for her role as Rudy Huxtable on The Cosby Show, who ultimately lost her reality TV gig for not calling Bill Cosby for a favor.

Now, the episode, which kicked off the seventh season of Celebrity Apprentice, was filmed about a year ago — several months before the wave of sexual assault allegations came down upon Cosby, leaving his legacy tarnished and his upcoming TV projects shelved, probably for good. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Celebrity Apprentice somehow managed to play on the Cosby hoopla, even if there was no mention of the long-rumored allegations against him.

But what did go down was this: part of the task each celebrity had to accomplish was calling a friend or colleague and asking for money, which is an excellent reminder that you can’t succeed in business (even the charitable sort) without nepotism and personal favors. Naturally, Pulliam’s teammates wanted her to call her former TV dad and boss, and she refused. If you’ve ever seen a former cast member talk about Bill Cosby, you may not be surprised; each holds a rather inflated reverence for him, usually referring to him as “Mr. Cosby,” and you get the sense that they feel that they’re indebted to the man because of his modest gift of giving them their roles on TV. (Maybe I’m projecting a little after hearing of the power plays Cosby has used against the women who have come out against him, accusing him of drugging and raping them. But the way everyone on that show speaks of him as if he did them a great favor — as opposed to acknowledging that their own talent got them their roles on The Cosby Show — always weirded me out.)

When Pulliam’s team, on which she was the project manager, lost the challenge, she had to defend herself in the boardroom against her teammates and Trump. “I have not talked to Bill Cosby on the phone in I don’t know how long,” she told the rest of the cast. “For me to pick up the phone having not talked to you for five years, except for when we run into each other for a Cosby event, I feel that’s not my place to do.”

But Trump disagreed, replying, “I really believe, if you’d called that gentleman, he would’ve helped you, even if you hadn’t spoken to him in years, because you were an amazing team with one of the most successful shows ever. So I think it would’ve been a very good call to make for charity.” And then he fired her.